Abstract
The earth's tectonic plates are strong, viscoelastic shells which make up the outermost part of a thermally convecting, predominantly viscous layer. Brittle failure of the lithosphere occurs when stresses are high. In order to build a realistic simulation of the planet's evolution, the complete viscoelastic/brittle convection system needs to be considered. A particle-in-cell finite element method is demonstrated which can simulate very large deformation viscoelasticity with a strain-dependent yield stress. This is applied to a plate-deformation problem. Numerical accuracy is demonstrated relative to analytic benchmarks, and the characteristics of the method are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2335-2356 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Pure and Applied Geophysics |
Volume | 159 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2002 |
Externally published | Yes |